The present invention relates to parking devices for vehicles, and particularly to parking devices attachable to the understructure of a motor vehicle in order to facilitate parking the vehicle.
Motor vehicles equipped with standard stearing systems generally require a parking space which is substantially longer than the length of the vehicle, and even then the vehicle must frequently execute several rearward and forward movements in order to properly enter the parking space. Parking a vehicle therefore frequently results in a wastage of time and energy on the part of the driver, and also substantial interference with the flow of traffic during the time the driver is parking the vehicle. In addition, conventional parking does not efficiently exploit all the parking space available, since a parking space which is not sufficiently larger than the length of the vehicle to permit entering and leaving the parking space will be completely unuseable as a parking space.
Many different types of parking devices have been proposed in order to facilitate parking a motor vehicle. The most common type includes a parking wheel assembly mounted adjacent to the rear end of the vehicle. The wheel assembly is generally driven by a gear drive into an operative position into engagement with the pavement, to raise the rear end of the vehicle and to permit it to be maneuvered into the parking space.
However, insofar as I am aware, none of the previously proposed devices has yet found wide commercial use, presumably because of many drawbacks inherent in them.